Swahili

PluralSwahilis, Swahili

1. 1
   proper noun

   An agglutinative language of the Bantu branch, widely spoken in East Africa; it developed in its modern form from the mixing of Arabic and Bantu cultures and spread along trade routes.

   Swahili is an official language in both Tanzania and Kenya.

   He conducts business in Swahili with partners from Mombasa to Dar es Salaam.

   Note

   The name itself carries the language's history. English borrowed it from Swahili, which took it from Arabic sawāḥiliyy, "(people) of the coasts," built on sāḥil, "coast." So an African language bears an Arabic name, fitting John Malathronas's 2021 description of "an Arab vocabulary upon an African grammar." As a language name it is capitalized and takes no article: you speak Swahili, or practice your Swahili.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   A member of various ethnic groups (mainly Bantu, Afro-Arab, and Comorian) inhabiting the coastal regions of East Africa.

   She married a Swahili from Zanzibar whose family had traded along the coast for generations.

   The Swahilis of Lamu have built houses of coral stone for centuries.

   Note

   The plural comes in two shapes, and both appear in serious writing. Arye Oded writes "the Swahilis" in Islam and Politics in Kenya (2000), while Derek Nurse and Thomas Spear title their 2017 study The Swahili. The unchanged form presents the people as a collective. Waswahili also serves as a plural. The coastal origin of the name is the one behind the language's name.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2